Storm Drain vs. Sanitary Sewer: Bay Area Reporting Directory

Bay Area jurisdictions do not all route wastewater and stormwater the same way. Official city pages may describe separate sanitary-sewer and storm-drain systems, while the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission describes most of San Francisco as a combined system.

Use the property address to identify the current city, sewer collection authority, and stormwater or public-works authority. Do not apply a neighboring city's diagram, label, reporting number, or responsibility boundary to the property.

Note whether the observation is at an indoor fixture, private exterior area, cleanout, curb, gutter, catch basin, manhole, street, ditch, creek, or another visible location. Record when it appeared and whether it is active, intermittent, or no longer visible.

Do not open a structure, enter water, handle an unknown material, or approach an area you consider unsafe to collect more detail. Follow the current emergency and reporting instructions on the official agency page that applies to the location.

The organization that bills for drinking water may not collect wastewater or maintain storm drains. A city may handle one system while a sanitary district, county, regional utility, or another department handles the other.

Confirm both roles from official sources. If the address or system is unclear, use the agency's general reporting or public-works path and ask it to route the observation rather than choosing a system from appearance alone.

Open the official page for the address and observation. Follow its current distinction between emergency, after-hours, online, phone, public-main, private-property, pollution, flooding, or maintenance reports.

Contact details and report categories can change. Do not copy an old number, app, form, or instruction from a search snippet, neighboring jurisdiction, saved document, or third-party directory when the authority's current page is available.

Store account numbers, resident information, access instructions, portal screenshots, inspection media, invoices, and agency correspondence in the approved private record. Share only the details needed by the authority or service contact.

Do not put private data into analytics events or a public URL. If an official report form requests sensitive information, submit it only through the authority's current secure process and retain the resulting reference privately.

A public agency report and a plumbing service request may proceed separately. The agency determines its system, report response, infrastructure boundary, and public process. A plumbing service provider can separately review the visible property condition, access, records, and requested scope.

For a time-sensitive property plumbing condition, call Avila and describe what is visible without relying on a remote diagnosis. Follow the relevant authority's current instructions for the public sewer, storm-drain, street, flooding, or environmental-reporting question.

The official pages below were reviewed on the date shown. Agency boundaries, system designs, emergency categories, report channels, phone numbers, apps, forms, and public response policies can change.

The directory is not exhaustive and does not establish which system or agency applies to a particular observation. A listing also does not determine responsibility, interpret law, replace emergency services, or confirm Avila service coverage.

Open the official page for the property's city and system. Follow that authority's current emergency category, report channel, service boundary, and follow-up instructions without applying another jurisdiction's process.